Magazine

Future Space and Missile Missions

Col. Scott W. Beidleman, USAF, director of development planning at Space and Missile Systems (SMC), Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is responsible to the commander of SMC for the planning of future space and missile missions across the center. In his talk to the chapter in January, he explained new materiel concepts that are being developed by his directorate to satisfy requirements provided by headquarters Air Force Space Command. He directs an SMC modeling and simulation capability to assess the performance of these concepts. He is also responsible for the planning process for technology investment needs across the center and for conducting project demonstrations. Research, technology and demonstration are the keywords for their activities. Projects include, among others, a commercial hosting demonstration, Advanced Hypersonic Development (AdHD), solar electric propulsion and a Space Environmental NanoSat Experiment (SENSE) to measure and establish background radiation levels in orbit.